I'm a lasagna boy!

Soundex and the Infury

About two years ago, during a round of greasy fish an' chips down at the Edinburgh Castle, I found that the Soundex algorithm more interesting than I had previously imagined; it was developed over a century ago for use in the U.S. Census. And it was recently abused to disenfranchise voters in the 2000 national election in the U.S.

Homage a Donkey Kong

Brideshead Revisited

I picked up a copy of Peepshow: The Cartoon Diary of Joe Matt, a slightly self-righteous, R.-Crumb derivative yet still original confessional comic.
I opened it up to a random page, and found a diary entry entitled "How to be cheap." Perfect, as I had bought the book from a vagrant who's a regular at the corner of Waller and Steiner on Sunday mornings: he collects leftover books from all around San Francisco and resells 'em, $1 a pop ("Each book a dollar! 7 for $5! 15 for $10! The more you buy, the more you save," as well as keeping that particular corner clean.

This is the bike against itself

Cody was generous enough to throw my bicycle into the back of his car and scoot us all over to the bike shop to pick up my newly-minted wheel. This wheel ain't no ordinary dealie, though: it's a duallie. I can kind of make the chain work with 14t and 18t cogs, but the bigger cog hangs precipitously on the edge of the dropouts (not fork ends!).

Kill 'im already!

yakkity yak

take it back

Three Sisters

I accosted a young man with an old timbuk2 bag who was reading this on the bus, and told him, "That looks like the bridge right near where I used to live. It's either the Sixth or Seventh St. bridge,", and he accomodatingly turned to the colophon, which informed us that the cover showed one of a trio of bridges across the Allegheny River. Macmillan Technology books have a nice bridge theme going; I suspect that's the real reason I bought their LDAP book.

Pedal steel

For the first time in months, I rode a derailleur bicycle to work. The exhilaration of speed -- of being able to go quickly up hills! -- of racing down hills without have to and brake with my knees! -- wore off as I heard all the clanking and mechanical motion of the gears shifting, of the jockey wheels spinning, the chain slapping, the rear axle breaking. Oh yeah, as I was turning at speed from 24th on to Valencia, the wheel slid forward in the drops and the chain slipped off the gears as the plastic end-cap of the skewer cracked. The washer underneath didn't come off, but without the knurled cap to hold it in place it wouldn't stay tight.
I've never trusted those wheels -- I was saying as much to jimg just yesterday. Well then! Time to find a new 130mm 8speed wheel.

The ill perambulation

It doesn't beat Jo Mendi, but it's close.